Eastern Railway Budget

Politics seemed to prevail over sound economics as the railway minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, took to the stage once again on Wednesday to present her second Railway Budget in the last seven months.

The goodies doled out to the Trinamul Congress leader’s home state came as no surprise given Ms Banerjee’s determination to dislodge the Marxists from power in next year’s Assembly election in West Bengal.

With no increase in passenger fares for the seventh year running and no revision in freight rates either this year, the railways will need to raise resources from other avenues. Apart from looking for private sector investment, the railways will also look for additional market borrowings of Rs 350 crore, it was indicated in the Railway Budget.

Railway finances should be a cause for concern given that its profits have fallen by 93 per cent in 2009-10 as compared to 2007-08. It is noteworthy, though, that the Railways hope that earnings from passenger traffic will increase by 10 per cent in the next fiscal year.

On Monday, there was a sense of deja vu given that the July 2009 budget too was West Bengal-centric. With Assembly polls a little more than a year away in that state, any hike in passenger fares or freight rates would be a politically unwise move for Ms Banerjee. The minister told the LS that she did not “propose any increase in the passenger fares of any class”.

Rail Budget 2010

* No increase in passenger fares and freight rate
* E-ticket service charge lowered to Rs 10 for sleeper class, Rs 20 for AC class
* Freight rate for foodgrains, kerosene down Rs 100/wagon
* 54 new trains, 10 Duronto trains
* Tourist train Bharat Tirth on 16 routes
* 101 new suburban services for Mumbai
* SMS updates for reservation status, train timing, wagon movement
* Free travel for cancer patients in 3rd AC and Sleepers

What AP got

* A wagon manufacturing factory to be established at Secunderabad.

* An assurance on Railway Sports Academy to be set up at Secunderabad.

* Rs 700 crore for pending projects, the highest in last one decade. Earlier, the South Central Railway get only Rs 200 crore every year for on-going projects.

* 21 new trains though some of them do not originate but pass through AP.

* Matribhoomi Ladies Special to be operated between Falaknuma and Lingampalli.

* Survey for 12 new railway lines ordered. Proposals submitted for Planning Commission’s
approval.

* Feasibility study for new railway lines between Falaknuma-Umdanagar and Secunderabad-Medchal.

* Preliminary engineering-cum-traffic survey to be taken up for dedicated freight corridor. This will help industrial and business houses of the state as AP is included in three corridors including North-South, East-South and South-South.

* Six stations - Guduru, Narsaraopet, Lingampalli, Shankarpalli, Tandur and Vikarabad - to be developed as Adarsh Stations.

* Multi-functional complexes to be set up at Dhar-
mavaram, Karimnagar, Kurnool, Nellore, Nizam-
abad, Vijayawada and Zaheerabad.

* Special tourist trains called Bharat Tirth to benefit pilgrims of the state.